Tea measuring and delivering appliance



Nov. 3. 192$ N. W. M LEAN ET AL A MEASURING AND DELIVERING APPLIANCE Filed lay 21, 1923 Patented Nov. 3, 1925.

* UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NORMAN WILLIAM MQLEAN AND WILLIAM ALEXANDER KYLE, OF PALMERSTON I NOR-TH, NEW znannnn.

TEA MEASURING AND DELIVERINGIAPPLLANCE.

Application filed. May 21, 1923. Serial No. 640,541.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, NORMAN WILLIAM MoLnAN and WIL IAM ALEXANDER KYLE, subjects of the King of Great Britain, re-

siding at 31 Lombard Street, Palmerston North, Dominion of New Zealand, and corner Ferguson and Cook Streets, Palmerston North, Dominion of New Zealand, respectively, have invented new and useful Improvements in Tea Measuring and Delivering Appliances, of which the following is a specification. o

This invention relates to an appliance designed for use in measuring out and delivering small quantities of tea. The appliance is useful in private homes, tea rooms, restaurants and other eating houses, in which tea is brewed and served in tea pots, and is adapted by its construction to deliver a measured quantity of tea into a tea pot at each operation, such quantity being gauged as the-amount requisite for each cup of the beverage to be made. The employment of the appliance therefore in making tea will serve to provide for the correct gauging of the strength of the tea and will also serve to prevent any waste by the use of excess quantities.

The appliance designed provides for the tea being placed within a transparent holder and for such holder then being placed, mouth downward, in a special frame so that the mouth fits into a tubular neck and the outlet of the mouth is blocked by a ball mounted to rotate within such neck and formed in its periphery with a cavity of a capacity equal to the quantity to be delivered on each operation. This cavity is disposed in the circumferential line of the balls rotation so that it passes across the mouth of the holder and is thereby filled with tea and then passes round and spills its contents through the bottom of the neck.

The special construction of the device forming the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation, and

Figure 2 is a side elevation thereof.

Figure 3 is a sectional front elevation of the delivery control portion of the appliance.

Figure 4 is a the delivery.

CAD

plan of the ball controlling 1 In carrying out the invention a. face board A is provided upon which to mount the appliance, this board being adapted to hang verticallyagainst' a wallor other fixture.

A tubular fitting B is fastened to the front. of the board at its lower end, and extends vertically and is disposed so that it stands out away from the boardby being fixed to a bracketsupport C. The tube therefore forms a neck and has its bottom. end made to taper inwards into spout form as at B.

Fitted into the tube B is-a ball D, of wood or other approved material, made of adiameter so as to form a neat fit across the passage through the neck and to rotate freely. This ball is fixed upon a spindle E passing diametrically through it and extending at both ends through bearings 6 formed in the tube B, on the respective sides. This spindle thus extends horizontally and transversely through the tube, and one end is bent into a crank handle, as at E, so that the spindle and ball may be rotated.

The peripheral surf-ace of the ball is formed with a cavity F made therein at a point in the line of the balls rotation. This cavity is made of a capacity to accord with the measure of tea to be delivered on each operation, and in the rotation of the ball therefore it first opens upwards in the tube and then downwards to its bottom.

The tea holder is formed by a bottle shaped vessel G, made preferably of transparent glass so that its contents may be viewed, having a mouth or neck G of such a diameter as to be adapted to fit easily into the top of the tube B, when the holder is inverted, and for its mouth then resting upon the ball D so as to be sealed thereby. The body portion of the holder is encircled by a metal band H that is clamped around it at a point near its top, when in the inverted position in which the appliance is shown. This band is connected to the face plate A by means of cranked wire arms J disposed one on each side and journalled in the plate A and then hooked through eyes It on the respective sides of the band. This arrangement serves to retain the holder G in the vertical position when its neck is resting upon the ball D, as shown b the full lines in Figure 2, but will allow 0 the holder being lifted so that its mouth may clear the top edge of the tube B, as shown by the dotted lines in Figure 2, and then to have such month swung out clear of the tube.

This special manner of mounting is to provide facility for chargingthe holder,

which is done by taking down the appliance, swinging the holder mouth out from the tube and inverting the whole apparatus so that the tea leaves may be poured into the holder. Then when it has been; charged, the mouth is turned back into the tube and the appliance turned up again, when the mouth will rest upon and bes'ealed by the ball.

The appliance is hungupon its fixture in this condition and may then be used to deliver its measured quantities of leaves, asrequired, by giving the ball a rotation for each measure wanted. As the cavity F opens up-' wards into the holder mouth it will be filled by the matter in the holder settling down, and this quantity will be carried round in the cavity and dropped through the spout B into any receptacle placed below to re- We claim 2- 1. A measuring and delivering appliance comprising a frame, a tubular neck secured to extend vertically on the front of said frame, a ball fitted to rotate on a horizontal axis within said tubular neck and having a cavity formed in its peripheral surface in the line of its rotation, a holder for the material to be measured having a mouth adapted to enter the top of said neck and be supported on the ball to form a closure for the holder, and means for connecting the upper end of said holder with the frame.

"2. A measuring and delivering appliance comprising a frame, a tubular neck secured to extend vertically on the front of said I frame, a ball valve mounted to rotate on a horizontal axis within said neck and having a cavity formed in its peripheral surface on the line of its rotation, a holder for the materialto be measured formed with a mouth I adapted to extend downwardly and to enter within said neck and be supported on the ball to form a closure for the holder, a band encircling the upper end of said holder, and cranked arms pivoted on said frame and linked to the encircling band, one on each side thereof.

In testimony whereof, we afiix our signatures. I

NORMAN WILLIAM MoLEAN. WILLIAM ALEXANDER KYLE. 

